Brown picks new dean of medicine

PROVIDENCE – An infectious-disease specialist who is currently chairman of the Department of Medicine at Brown University has been chosen to succeed Dr. Eli Y. Adashi as dean of medicine and biological sciences, effective July 1.
Brown President Ruth J. Simmons introduced Dr. Edward J. Wing as the new dean at a 1 p.m. news conference in the Maddock Alumni Center.
Wing is the Joukowsky Family Professor of Medicine at Brown and physician-in-chief at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital, as well as executive physician-in-chief at the Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Women & Infants Hospital, all of which are affiliated with Brown.
“We are fortunate to have found someone with Ed Wing’s stature, intellect, proven experience, and familiarity with Brown and our hospital partners,” Simmons said in a statement. “I am persuaded that he has the highest expectations for the Division of Biology and Medicine, that he will maintain the appropriate standards for academic medicine, and that, in implementing our strategic plan, he will strengthen both. I look forward to working with him to achieve those aims.”
Wing’s selection comes just over three months after Adashi – who had served as dean since January 2005 – announced that he would be stepping down. (READ MORE) Adashi was chosen through a national search that took years and involved a wide range of people involved with the medical school; Wing, by contrast, was picked by an eight-member faculty committee that had been charged with finding a new dean within Brown.
Wing will lead Brown’s fast-growing Division of Biology and Medicine, with its annual budget of $129 million; 769 campus- and hospital-based faculty and more than 1,200 community-based faculty; and 660 undergraduate students and more than 1,000 medical residents, fellows, graduate students, postdoctoral students and medical students.
Besides The Warren Alpert Medical School, the division includes the Program in Biology and the Program in Public Health.
Since 2004, Brown has invested more than $230 million in expanding its life sciences faculty, facilities and equipment, and it has increased its life-science research space by more than 75 percent with two new labs: the Sidney E. Frank Hall for Life Sciences and the Laboratories for Molecular Medicine.
As dean, Wing will provide leadership for continued investments in the life sciences, including the planned construction of a new medical school facility. He also will oversee the medical school’s partnerships with local hospitals and health care systems and will serve as the chief academic officer for each of those partnerships.
“This is a time of tremendous opportunity for the University and the division,” Wing said in a statement. “As dean, I hope to continue to foster the upward momentum of the division and to lead the division to become one of the best in the country. I want to thank President Simmons and Provost [David I.] Kertzer for this extraordinary opportunity.”
A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Wing completed his postgraduate training as a resident at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital – now part of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston – and as a fellow in infectious diseases at Stanford University.
Wing then moved on to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he rose through the ranks from assistant professor of medicine in 1977 to executive vice chairman and vice chairman for clinical programs and interim chairman of the Department of Medicine from 1995 to 1997. He joined Brown in 1998 as chair of the Department of Medicine.
Wing specializes in infectious diseases and has been a reviewer for more than 20 medical journals, as well as the author or co-author of more than 90 peer-reviewed articles and presentations, and chapters in 18 books. He has received research grants from the National Institutes of Health and several foundations and companies.
Wing is married to Rena Rimsky Wing, a researcher in the behavioral management of obesity, particularly its relationship to type 2 diabetes. They have two sons, Jonathan and Kenneth.
“Ed Wing is a nationally recognized leader in medicine, known for his deep devotion to biomedical research and education and to providing outstanding medical care,” Kertzner said in a statement today. “He will be a dynamic leader for the Division of Biology and Medicine and the Alpert Medical School.”
Brown University is an Ivy League institution offering nearly 100 programs of study to its nearly 7,200 undergraduate, graduate and medical students. For more information, visit www.brown.edu.

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